New Health Care Act Could Result in 23 Million Losing Insurance

FRIDAY, May 26, 2017 (HealthDay News) — The Republican-led bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that passed the House this month would result in 23 million Americans losing their health insurance coverage, according to a report issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The nonpartisan CBO projects that a total of 51 million people under age 65 would be uninsured in 2026 under the Republican-backed measure, called the American Health Care Act.

That figure is a combination of the 28 million Americans under 65 who still lack insurance under the ACA plus the 23 million projected to lose their coverage if the GOP-sponsored bill passes the Senate to become law. The new CBO estimate of the newly uninsured is only about a million people fewer than the prior plan rejected by the House in March.

The newer version — with concessions to the far right of the Republican party — narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 4, ahead of the CBO’s final, independent assessment of its potential impact on federal spending and health care coverage.